Almost Dry

Oh my!!  I haven't touched my oil paints in so long!  And this was so very delightful to paint!  I have been reveling in God's kindness!  It's a small-ish guy... only 8"x10".  I didn't want to set too huge a goal for myself, since I haven't painted with my oil paints in months.  But this went so very quickly. Did I already say it?  I'm reveling in God's kindness!

I'm calling it "Garden Glory."

Thank You, My Father!

Time Is Not My Friend!

Clearly it's been MONTHS since I last posted anything on here.  And because of that I FORGOT HOW TO POST!  Pathetic, I know.  I asked Murphy, and he told me what I needed to do, and then I let too much time go by AGAIN, and I FORGOT AGAIN! I'm heaving a huge sigh here.

But this time I figured it out!  I can only say it was because of the kindness of my God!  So, thank You, Lord Jesus!!

This painting was done for a lovely lady way back in February of last year.  My hubby and I drove around our area, exploring all kinds of back roads, all to get the perfect reference pic.  Which was not a hardship!  We live in such a beautiful part of the world!  I am thankful for that!

REJOICE WITH ME!!!

All eight canvases for my church are DONE!  This set was plagued by several hiccups schedule-wise, several hiccups health-wise, and several hiccups content-wise.  But they're done!!  And I'm pleased.  I see the kindness of God all over these images.  He came alongside me and painted, as He usually does.  So rejoice with me!  GOD IS GOOD, AND KIND, AND FAITHFUL, AND COMPASSIONATE, AND CREATIVE!!

All the smudges along the bottom are glued on calendar pages.  They were really bold in their colors, so I went over them with a dry white brush.  They almost disappear now, but I'm ok with that.

The bird's nest in this one is 3-dimensional.  It's made of wadded up tissue paper, and it sticks out from the canvas.  No picking at it, people!!!

This one also has tissue paper.... that orange stripe is glued on, instead of being paint.  All the white marks are where the paint picked up the wrinkles in the tissue paper.

More tissue paper here.  All the beige smudges are glued on instead of painted on.

Here We Go!

We're goin' black!  Change is good, and invigorating, and exciting, and even challenging.  All 8 canvases for  my church went black at the tail end of last week.  Today I started on the new images.  Two are done!  Six more to go.....

I love these two.  Especially as a pair!  What a thought, that Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God is a warrior on my behalf.  And not only that, HE IS VICTORIOUS!!!  Love that.

Doodles and Ponderings

Doodling goes hand-in-hand with pondering.  My mind cannot be blank.  It's just not possible!  So as I sit with a pen in my hand, my creative lines are always interrupted by the need to make a note of what's going on in my head.  In this case, I was pondering the character of God, and how He Himself is of great comfort to me.

Piggy-backing on those thoughts, come the grand thoughts of God's work in my life.  Again, there is no void.  I don't remain a blank canvas in the hands of my God.  He is ALWAYS at work.  Another great comfort.

Doodles To End The Year

It's a soothing thing to sit with pen in hand.  Tiny lines, one right after another,  symmetrical and yet not,  sometimes some whimsy, sometimes nothing special.  Always pondering the events of the day.  Often speaking to God of the cares of this world.  Sometimes getting an ache in  my thumb, but it 's so, so worth it.  These quiet hours are peaceful.

Peace to you, those who stop by here.  May you pursue and know our only true source of peace in 2016: JESUS CHRIST HIMSELF.

A Joyous Pair

Two pieces.  Intended to hang together as you see them here.  These were a DELIGHT to paint.  My client loves the mountains,  she loves Pikes Peak,  she loves the truth found in  God's word, and she LOVES THE PROMISED RETURN OF THE LORD JESUS.  That's why I painted a cloudy Peak, instead of one with a clear blue sky.  Jesus will come in the clouds.  PERHAPS TODAY.

On a more prosaic note, the canvas with the words was stinking hard!!!  I paint words all the time, but they're usually on a ginormous canvas.  This one is only 11" x 14".  That's a tiny brush!  I can tell you I prayed a lot over it!!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Over the years our collection of  Christmas decorations has gotten smaller and smaller and smaller.  That's because there wasn't much quality in the collection, and things broke, or got munched, or faded... and so I threw things away.  The problem is, I didn't replace them.  So the house has looked less and less festive as the years have gone by.

Well, this year I decided I wanted to do something about it.  Among other things, I've added this group of tiny canvases.  They're 4" square, and each letter stands on it's own tiny easel.  I got out my calligraphy books and dug around for a font that I thought was fitting, and then sketched out the letters on paper to begin with (because I've LEARNED that when I don't have a PLAN, things very quickly go awry).  I think I'm going to paint over the blue diamonds in the letter "N"... either that, or add blue diamonds to the other letters. Other than that I'm pleased.

Merry Christmas everyone!!  Celebrate Christ's birth!!!

Trying To Re-Light the Flame

Time marches by.  No, it trots.  No, it gallops, full speed with energy and fervor.  And I find myself wondering where it went!  AND, I find myself wondering how to hold a pen or a paint brush.

So, here is my attempt to bring the tiny spark of creativity back to life.  Greeting cards are great for that purpose.  They're small.  They're generally quick.  And they're easy to throw away if they're a failure!!

This is the beginning of a project for a friend.  Two canvases, one with these glorious words, and one with our beloved mountain on it (that would be Pikes Peak, for you non-locals).  Canvases are a little harder to pitch if they're failures, so I am speaking to my Lord about this quite a lot!

A Labor Day Labor (not!)

Yesterday my family came up to our little mountain home and hung out.  It was delightful!  A couple of us went down to the property line and painted the back side of Pikes Peak.  Her's was lovely, mine was... not so much.  So to make myself feel better, I painted the power pole!!  Ha!  Except for the fact that the scan turned out mildly fuzzy, I quite like it!!

Making Waiting Less Painful

A while ago I FINALLY learned the beauty and value of taking a sketch book with me.  Everywhere.  And pencils. And pens. And watercolor brushes.  And paint. And paper towels.  It adds up to a significant bundle, but I have this delightful bag that I've repurposed to carry all sorts of art supplies, and today it came in handy!

I had to wait for some piano movers, and they had to drive a ways, so it took awhile... and so I painted this little drawing.  I probably did the drawing over a  year ago, but today I inked it and then painted it.

Waiting isn't so awful after all!

Busy, Busy, Busy!

When someone calls you and offers you a temporary, side job for the summer, of course you take it!  But that means there's very little sketching, or drawing, or inking, or painting going on.  I did, however, enjoy one delightful afternoon at a friend's cabin, sitting by the stream, drawing his leaning bird house.

This is in my travel sketchbook, and you can even see the seam in the page.  It was a bit of a rush job, because those clouds were growing dark.  But it was a FABULOUS way to spend an afternoon!

The Camp That I Love!

Oh, how I love Camp Elim!!  It's a fabulous place, where kids go for a week at a time to run around and play and be crazy and hear the glorious truth of Jesus their Savior.  I went there as a kid, and then I volunteered there on staff as a young adult.  What great memories!  And what great things God did in my heart because of my time there.

Every so often they have a need that I can fill with my paintbrush.  Aren't these fun?!  That top one has the Camp Director doing his version of a photo bomb (um.... you're supposed to be peeking in over someone's shoulder, Dan!!).

Loved, loved, loved doing these.  You should go see them in person!! Better yet, you should send your kids!!!  Or go yourself!  A week on staff at Camp Elim is the best vacation ever, just sayin'!

Check 'em out:  http://www.campelim.com/

My Latest Project

I'll start off by repeating what I've said before:  although house paint is easy and quick and goes on the wall oh-so smoothly.... the colors don't mix very well!  So you have to have your head screwed on straight, lest you make the mistake of mixing red and blue to get purple!  IT WON'T WORK!

Even so, with some careful thinking, and careful painting, the results can be quite pleasing!  Thank you, Adam and Angel, for letting me PLAY on your wall!!

I'd like to add a moment of thankfulness for this blog (that sounds funny for the AUTHOR of the blog to say, doesn't it?).  Not long ago the hard-drive on my computer died.  Dead.  Completely.   No reviving it.  And I hadn't backed up all my photos.  At least not recently.  So I took it to the local computer fix-it guys and asked them oh-so-nicely if they could PLEASE try to retrieve the photos off of the hard drive.  PRETTY PLEASE?!

Well, they only got some of them.  Deep breath.  The last year's worth of artwork was gone.

Until I remembered that I had posted most of it on this blog!!!  HOORAY!  I went and down-loaded the images off of here, and got them back on my computer... AND THEN BACKED UP THE WHOLE SHEBANG ON A REMOVABLE HARD-DRIVE.

And THEN, gave thanks to my God for His kindness!!!